Making sense of it

The more we strip away the artificial intricacies of this life, the more it can start to make less sense to us. We are born, we distract ourselves for a few decades and then our time is up. No one asked in advance if we wanted to participate.

Philosophers and religions have wrestled for millennia with the meaning of life and how navigate it. As we become older we might lose faith because we see through much of the futility of trying to change the reprehensible and yet there is much comfort in understanding what merits our attention; what is truly important and how to prioritize it. This is how we can reinvigorate our lives.

The Christian saying of "help me to understand what I can change, what I cannot and the wisdom to know the difference" really applies and we come to appreciate it at its most visceral and pragmatic level which eluded us in our youth because we lacked the experience to see it.

Yesterday I had a call with a young engineer and, after dealing with the issue at hand, we spoke about his life. After having offered some counsel on a few areas where I had already tread he told me how much he appreciated it.

It gave me the greatest pleasure.